Teaching Philosophy

Esta obra colectiva expone diversas concepciones teóricas, ontológicas, epistemológicas, axiológicas y prácticas sobre el origen, sentido, problemáticas, ventajas, detrimentos, alternativas y desafías de la filosofía de la innovación y su incidencia en la educación; reflexiona sobre las contribuciones de la tecnología y responde a interrogantes como: ¿Cuáles son los aporte de la tradición filosófica, del pensamiento ilustrado, de la postmodernidad y de la teoría crítica para la filosofía de la innovación educativa?; ¿Cuál es la función de la filosofía para la (...) comprensión de la innovación?; ¿Cómo se explica el progreso tecno-científico desde la epistemología contemporánea?; ¿Cuál es el componente pedagógico de la innovación?; ¿Cuáles son las aportaciones del Laudato Si para la innovación educativa?. Además, plantea la necesidad de repensar algunos aspectos relacionados con la educación, el Estado y la identidad latinoamericana para determinar las posibilidades, las limitaciones y los retos de la innovación, entendida como un fenómeno en permanente construcción. Este tomo se encuentra conformado por ocho capítulos en los que los autores formulan un conjunto de contribuciones para la generación de nuevas investigaciones. Además, evidencia a la innovación como un procesos que exige reformulaciones. La innovación sigue siendo una de las tareas pendientes de la filosofía. (shrink)

Alsted was a foremost encyclopedist of the early seventeenth century. He provided both a complete presentation of all the subjects of philosophy (of which encyclopedia consisted) and a method to learn them. This method was an original synthesis of the dialectic of Petrus Ramus, the combinatorial art of memory of Raimond Lull and Giordano Bruno, and the method of presentation of philosophical disciplines of Bartholomäus Keckermann. Alsted’s encyclopedism was intended as a remedy to the postlapsarian condition of man and was (...) functional to the pedagogical reform pursued at the Academy of Herborn; this was, in turn, an essential part of the Calvinist state reform of the county of Nassau-Dillenburg. In theology, the importance of Alsted consists of having introduced millenarianism in the Reformed Europe, though his early, optimistic views on the imminent end of the world would change to pessimistic as a consequence of the Thirty Years’ War. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the rhetorical moves of article abstracts in Taiwanese Chinese philosophy journals. The most common theory for the discourse analysis of research abstracts is proposed by Hyland（2000）. Most of the research abstracts in the field of social sciences and natural sciences are composed of Hyland’s five rhetorical moves: introduction, purpose, method, results, and conclusion. Therefore, the question to be explored in this research is how to compose the rhetorical moves of abstracts of Chinese philosophy journal articles. (...) What is the frequency and order of each rhetorical move in the abstract of each paper? Do they reflect some particular type of distribution? Are there any rhetorical moves that occur exceptionally rarely? Does the abstract of research articles in Chinese philosophy journals apply the framework of the same five rhetorical moves? What are the conventions of the philosophy writing community reflected in the rhetorical moves of abstracts of academic journal articles in philosophy? -/- To answer the above questions, this research collected the abstracts of 18 papers from the representative Chinese philosophy journal "SOOCHOW JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES " in Taiwan in the past five years (2017-2021) and used the five moves of Hyland（2000） one by one to answer the above questions. The rhetorical moves of each abstract were analyzed and presented in tables to show the frequency, order, and type of each rhetorical move. -/- The results of this study found that "method (M)" and "conclusion (C)" are not the rhetorical moves that constitute the abstract of articles in Taiwanese philosophy journals, but the rhetorical move "purpose (P)" is "necessary" to appear. In the Purpose move, the subject is usually "this article"; the verbs are "argue" or "inquire." Although "introduction (I)" is a "conventional" move, the total number of words in the introduction is the highest in the whole abstract. This study also shows rhetorical move variation of the abstracts of philosophy journal articles, reflecting the writing culture and conventions of the academic philosophy community. -/- Finally, this study proposes three teaching guidelines for abstract writing of academic papers in philosophy, which will be useful for philosophy scholars and graduate students to consult when writing and submitting abstracts of philosophy in conference or journal papers. -/- Keywords: philosophy, journal article, abstract, discourse analysis, rhetorical move -/- 本研究旨在探究台灣華文哲學期刊文章摘要的修辭語步。有鑒於過去針對研究論文「摘要研究」語步分析最常見的理論，是Hyland（2000）提出的五項修辭語步「簡介、目的、方法、成果、結論」架構，且多數人文科 學或自然科學領域的研究論文摘要都是由Hyland（2000）所提出這五項修辭語步所組成的。因此，本研究所要探討的問題是華文哲學期刊論文摘要的修辭語步如何組成？各個修辭語步在各篇論文摘要出現的頻率與次序 為何？它們是否反映出某些特定類型的分佈狀況？是否有哪些修辭語步出現的頻率格外稀少？華文哲學期刊文章的摘要是否適用『簡介、目的、方法、成果、結論』這五項修辭語步的架構？哲學學術期刊論文摘要的修辭語步所反 映出哲學寫作社群慣例是什麼呢？為了解答上述問題，本研究採取的方法是蒐集近五年（2017年至2021年）台灣代表性華文哲學期刊文章《東吳哲學學報》十八篇論文摘要，並逐一運用Hyland（2000）五項修 辭語步的理論架構分析各篇摘要的修辭語步，並運用表格彙整呈現出各個修辭語步出現的頻率、次序、類型。本研究的結果發現：「方法（M）」與「結論（C）」並不是構成台灣哲學期刊文章摘要的修辭語步、而「目的（P） 」這項修辭語步是「必備性」出現的修辭語步（主語通常是「本文」；動詞是「論證」或「探究」）、「簡介（I）」雖是「慣例性」出現的語步，然其所占的總字數卻居於首位。這也顯示出了哲學期刊論文摘要的修辭語步變異 、哲學學術社群的寫作文化與慣例。最後，本研究提出了三項適用於 Hyland（2007）語體教學法的學術論文的摘要寫作教學方針，期許能藉此延伸應用作為哲學教師未來進行教學、或研究生撰寫並投稿哲學期刊論文摘要的一個重要參照依據。 -/- 關鍵詞：哲學、期刊論文、摘要、言談分析、修辭語步. (shrink)

While recently hyped as a defense against AI plagiarism, oral exams have fallen out of favor in American philosophy departments. They are often perceived as part of an antiquated system where the day-to-day coursework is sharply distinguished from a 100% weighted final exam, with a more oppositional than collaborative student-professor relationship. Such examinations do not lend themselves to blind grading, and also reinforce the existing privilege of students who are confident, fast-spoken, and know what to study. This kind of oral (...) examination is clearly at odds with the contemporary transparent and collaborative process embodied in techniques like specifications grading, with its proven benefits for novice philosophy students in introductory-level courses. I want to defend a rather different role for oral exams. Novice philosophy students need rapid feedback in order to know whether they have correctly understood the expectations embodied in syllabi and rubrics. Six best practices are offered for achieving this goal while minimizing drawbacks. (shrink)

Immanuel Kant is rarely appreciated for his contributions to public philosophy. This is unsurprising, given his dry, technical style, criticism of the popular German philosophy movement, and prolonged silence on religious topics following censorship threats from Frederick William II. Yet Kant’s underappreciation vis-à-vis public philosophy is curious: Not only was he a vocal supporter of the early French Revolution, but he also said much on the public and political value of enlightenment. These ideas come across indirectly in his systematic writings (...) and explicitly in writings for the learned public. This paper focuses on the question as to whether Kant should be viewed as a public philosopher, drawing from recent contributions in Kant scholarship to argue for the affirmative, though in an admittedly qualified sense. (shrink)

obedience and freedom at the same time, due to social responsability.

Some basic methods of philosophizing as an introduction to philosophy.

An introduction to the field of digital ethics and to the textbook, "Digital Ethics: Living in Networked Worlds" (Digitale Ethik: Leben in vernetzten Welten).

The study was conducted to determine the pitfalls encountered by grade five teachers during modular teaching and learning. Specifically, it aimed to find out the pitfalls encountered by teachers along with students’ comprehension, students’ academic behavior, monitoring of students’ education, and physical interaction with the learners. The personal profile of teachers, out of the total respondents (56), most of the teachers are female-dominated. Most of them belong to the age bracket of 34 to 45 and most of the teachers are (...) married. Most of the teachers had attended post-graduate studies. Most respondents are still young in the service, holding Teacher 2 and Teacher 3 positions, and attending local, national, and regional training. On the level of pitfalls encountered by teachers in modular teaching and learning, most respondents experienced a slight gravity level in the four aspects. The computed average weighted mean along comprehension is 2.50, along academic behavior is 2.54, along monitoring of students’ performance is 2.58, and along physical interaction is 2.79. All have an equivalent value of moderately grave. There is a specific profile of teachers that is significantly related. Age is significantly associated with monitoring students’ learning. The computed r value is .270, while the calculated significance level is 0.04. Training attended by the teachers is significantly related to some aspects of students’ comprehension, (computed sig. value is 0.04 and physical interaction is .02), which is lower than the .05 level of significance. The grade five teachers who served as respondents are mostly female dominated; they are in their early forties and married. Most of them are attending post-graduate studies and have attended relevant training. Second, the level of teachers’ pitfalls is mostly moderately grave. In addition, age is significantly related to monitoring, training is significantly associated substantially with physical interaction and comprehension. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Objectives There is little research on moral uncertainties and distress of palliative and hospice care providers (PHCPs) working in jurisdictions anticipating legalising voluntary assisted dying (VAD). This study examines the perception and anticipated concerns of PHCPs in providing VAD in the State of Queensland, Australia prior to legalisation of the practice in 2021. The findings help inform strategies to facilitate training and support the health and well-being of healthcare workers involved in VAD. Design The study used a qualitative approach (...) to examine and analyse the perception and anticipated concerns of PHCPs regarding challenges of providing assisted dying in Queensland. Fourteen PHCPs were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy to obtain a broad representation of perspectives including work roles, geographical locations and workplace characteristics. Data were collected via one in-depth interview per participant. The transcripts were coded for patterns and themes using an inductive analysis approach following the tradition of Grounded Theory. Setting The study was conducted in hospital, hospice, community and residential aged care settings in Queensland, Australia. These included public and private facilities, secular and faith-based facilities, and regional/rural and urban facilities. Participants Interviews were conducted with fourteen PHCPs: 10 nurses and 4 physicians; 11 female and 3 male. The median number of years of palliative care practice was 17, ranging from 2 to 36 years. For inclusion, participants had to be practising palliative and hospice care providers. Results PHCPs are divided on whether VAD should be considered part of palliative care. Expectations of moral distress and uncertainty about practising VAD were identified in five areas: handling requests, assessing patient capacity, arranging patient transfers and logistical issues, managing unsuccessful attempts, and dealing with team conflicts and stigma. Conclusions The possibility of having to practise VAD causes moral distress and uncertainty for some PHCPs. Procedural clarity can address some uncertainties; moral and psychological distress, however, remains a source of tension that needs support to ensure ongoing care of both patients and PHCPs. The introduction of VAD post-legalisation may present an occasion for further moral education and development of PHCPs. (shrink)

I argue that it can sometimes be good to do philosophy badly and that this has important implications for our classroom practices. It is better to engage in philosophy in a mediocre way than to not engage with it at all, and this should influence what learning goals we adopt and how we assess students. Furthermore, being open to doing and teaching philosophy imperfectly is necessary for fighting against rampant prestige bias and perfectionism in our discipline and our classrooms; if (...) we are to expand the canon and diversify our curricula, we must be willing to risk doing mediocre work ourselves and willing to support our students in doing the same. I conclude that we should sometimes be guided in our teaching by an alternative standard of philosophical excellence that is focused not on the quality of the work produced, but on the joy, creativity, and collaboration involved in the process. (shrink)

Since 2007, I conduct philosophical walks as individual consultations, teachings or Socratic group exercises. A philosophical walk is intended to make participants think, to deepen thoughts and to become conscious of oneself in relation to the surroundings by walking. It is a form of philosophical practice, facilitating dialogue so that a meaningful story can be obtained. Participants are encouraged to (i) walk in such a way that they obtain space for thoughts and thinking, (ii) conceptualize, (iii) identify a place related (...) to a concept, (iv) question concepts, place and space, and (v) connect concepts with their experience. In this paper, I will describe the method of my philosophical walks and give an example: a philosophical walk at the campus of Nanjing University, China, in 2013. The aim is to provide readers a tool for conducting philosophical walks themselves and walk just like Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche and many other philosophers have done in order to philosophize and produce concepts related to life, person and place. (shrink)

Há alguns anos escrevi um pequeno texto que ilustra uma situação problemática sobre o julgamento de se a vida de uma determinada pessoa fictícia (Bento) foi uma vida feliz ou não. Uso com frequência esse texto em minhas aulas introdutórias, como um recurso didático para explicar o que é a filosofia, qual o seu papel no nosso entendimento do mundo, e também para ilustrar a sua principal dificuldade, que é o caráter aporético das questões filosóficas: elas não admitem soluções unânimes (...) ou incontroversas. Elas sempre exigem escolha e engajamento. O mérito desse texto (que será reproduzido no diálogo abaixo) é que praticamente todos nós, ao o lermos ou ouvirmos, temos uma propensão imediata e irresistível de considerar ou que a vida de Bento foi feliz ou que ela foi infeliz. E nós divergimos sobre isso. Em todas as incontáveis vezes que o apresentei para alguma plateia, jamais as respostas foram unânimes. Sempre houve divergências, o que ilustra bem o caráter aporético da filosofia. Logo que eu soube do ChatGPT e de suas capacidades extraordinárias como sistema de inteligência artificial (IA), resolvi provocá-lo com meu texto. Sua resposta à pergunta sobre a felicidade de Bento foi impressionantemente clara. Talvez a resposta mais clara sobre a questão que já obtive até hoje. Fiquei realmente impressionado, mas também um pouco decepcionado. Porque apesar de fazer uma análise filosófica bastante sofisticada da situação, o ChatGPT recusou-se a fazer uma escolha, a decidir se o personagem teve ou não uma vida feliz. Ele me informou que, como um sistema de IA, ele não tem valores e não faz escolhas. Não gosta nem desgosta, não prefere. E isso me deixou frustrado, porque escolher, preferir, decidir, mesmo quando não temos todas as informações completas é, para mim, não apenas a essência da filosofia, como também a essência de nossa inteligência humana. Como eu queria ver o ChatGPT fazer escolhas, adotei, então, a estratégia de solicitar que ele assumisse um personagem humano, que fingisse ser uma pessoa, e passei a conversar com esta pessoa. Se ele executar bem o papel de uma pessoa, então ele deverá fazer escolhas, pensei. E assim começou esta nossa conversa filosófica sobre a felicidade. (shrink)

La ricerca sulla quale si basa il volume ha coinvolto cinque istituti superiori di Udine e si è svolta attraverso interviste agli studenti e ai loro docenti del triennio. Agli intervistati è stato chiesto se la filosofia insegnata a scuola riuscisse a stimolare un processo di mutamento, o perlomeno di chiarificazione, della visione del mondo e, soprattutto, se avesse un impatto sulle relazioni con gli altri. Si è inteso così operare un rivolgimento della filosofia su se stessa e sul suo (...) modo di avvicinare il mondo degli adolescenti. Attraverso la prospettiva fenomenologica, applicata alle riflessioni di studenti e docenti, è divenuto perciò possibile comprendere le ragioni per cui la disciplina ha effetti più o meno incisivi sull’esistenza dei ragazzi. (shrink)

Dysmenorrhea, or menstrual pain, is regularly suffered by 45 to 95% of menstruating women. Despite its prevalence, and despite the philosophical importance of pain as a general phenomenon, dysmenorrhea has been all but completely overlooked in contemporary analytic philosophy of mind. This paper aims at rectifying this situation. We single out three properties of what is often considered the paradigmatic case of painful experience, what we call injury-centered pains, and argue that dysmenorrhea does not have any of them, and hence (...) that it does not neatly conform to the injury-centered model of pain. This calls into question the centrality of the injury-centered model, and suggests novel research avenues within theoretical debates on affectivity. (shrink)

Students sometimes profess moral relativism or skepticism with retorts like ‘how can we know?’ or ‘it’s all relative!’ Here I defend a pedagogical method to defuse moral relativism and moral skepticism using phenomenal conservatism: if it seems to S that p, S has defeasible justification to believe that p; e.g., moral seemings, like perceptual ones, are defeasibly justified. The purpose of defusing moral skepticism and relativism is to prevent these metaethical views from acting as stumbling blocks to insightful ethical inquiry (...) in the classroom. This approach puts the burden of proof on the relativist or skeptic (to justify their view, contrary to appearances), and makes their views costlier: if we reject moral seemings as a kind, we must reject other less objectionable seemings too (e.g. intellectual seemings). Finally, this approach improves learning outcomes by ‘hooking onto’ student familiarity with seemings, e.g. seeing is (defeasibly justified) believing. (shrink)

The particular design of any technology may have profound social implications. Computing technologies are deeply intermeshed with the activities of daily life, playing an ever more central role in how we work, learn, communicate, socialize, and participate in government. Despite the many ways they have improved life, they cannot be regarded as unambiguously beneficial or even value-neutral. Recent experience shows they can lead to unintended but harmful consequences. Some technologies are thought to threaten democracy through the spread of propaganda on (...) online social networks, or to threaten privacy through the aggregation of datasets that include increasingly personal information, or to threaten justice when machine learning is used in such high-stakes, decision-making contexts as loan application reviews, employment procedures, or parole hearings. It is insufficient to ethically assess technology after it has produced negative social impacts, as has happened, for example, with facial recognition software that discriminates against people of color and with self-driving cars that are unable to cope with pedestrians who jay-walk. Developers of new technologies should aim to identify potential harmful consequences early in the design process and take steps to eliminate or mitigate them. This task is not easy. Designers will often have to negotiate among competing values—for instance, between efficiency and accessibility for a diverse user population, or between maximizing benefits and avoiding harm. There is no simple recipe for identifying and solving ethical problems. -/- Computer science education can help meet these challenges by making ethical reasoning about computing technologies a central element in the curriculum. Students can learn to think not only about what technology they could create, but also whether they should create that technology. Learning to reason this way requires courses unlike those currently standard in computer science curricula. A range of university courses on topics in areas of computing, ethics, society and public policy are emerging to meet this need. Some cover computer science broadly, while others focus on specific problems like privacy and security; typically, these classes exist as stand-alone courses in the computer science curriculum. Others have integrated ethics into the teaching of introductory courses on programming, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction. (shrink)

Propositional Logic: Introduction & Symbols Logical Operators & Translation Symbols Helpful Hints Translating: Simple Statements Complex Statements Conditional Statements Conjunctive Statements Disjunctive Statements Translating with Multiple Operators Identifying the Main Operator How To Translate into Propositional Logic in 4 EASY STEPS Resources: Slides, Examples, & Helpful Hints.

Deductively Valid Argument Forms Modus Ponens & Tollens Disjunctive & Hypothetical Syllogisms Destructive & Constructive Dilemmas Deductively Invalid Argument Forms Denying the Antecedent (DA) & Affirming the Consequent (AC) Resources: Slides, Examples, Helpful Hints, & "at-a-glance" Handout.

Identifying Arguments: Deduction & Induction Evaluating Arguments Deductive: Valid, Invalid, (Un)Sound Inductive: Strong, Weak, (Un)Cogent Inference to the Best Explanation [IBE] Identifying & Evaluating COMPLEX Arguments How to Present, Explain, and Evaluate an Argument Resources: Slides, Examples.

Introduction: Logic & Arguments What is a Proposition / Statement? What is an Argument? Premises(s) & Conclusion Resources: Slides, Examples, Indicator Words, & YouTube Video Lecture.

Truth: What Do We Really Know? JTB Account of Knowledge & Gettier Problem Truth & Knowledge: What is Truth? Pragmatism Coherence Correspondence Semantic Relativism Postmodernism Feminist Epistemology Why Does Truth Matter? Science, Truth, & "Post-Truth" .

Introduction to Philosophy of Religion: What it is Philosophy of Religion & Theology Common Questions: God(s), Belief, Experience, Pluralism Types of Religious Belief Terminology: Theism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Monotheism, Polytheism, Deism, Pantheism, & Panentheism Types of Theism is Major World Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Zoroastrianism, Abrahamic Religions, & Sikhism Arguments for God's Existence: Cosmological, Teleological, Ontological, Reformed Epistemology, Pragmatism, Religious & Experience Arguments Against God's Existence: The Problem of Evil, Logical & Evidential.

Feelings of belonging are integral in people’s choice of what career to pursue. Women and men are disproportionately represented across careers, starting with academic training. The present research focuses on two fields that are similar in their history and subject matter but feature inverse gender gaps—psychology (more women than men) and philosophy (more men than women)—to investigate how theorized explanations for academic gender gaps contribute to feelings of belonging. Specifically, we simultaneously model the relative contribution of theoretically relevant individual differences (...) (empathizing, systematizing, and intellectual combativeness) as well as life goals (prioritization of family, money, and status) to feelings of belonging and majoring in psychology or philosophy. We find that men report higher intellectual combativeness than women, and intellectual combativeness predicts feelings of belonging and majoring in philosophy over psychology. Although systematizing and empathizing are predictive of belonging and, in turn, majoring in psychology and philosophy, respectively, when other factors are taken into account, women and men do not differ in empathizing and systematizing. Women, more than men, report prioritizing having a family, wealth, and status in choosing a career, and these directly or indirectly feed into feelings of belonging and majoring in psychology, in contrast to prior theory. Together, these findings suggest that students’ perceptions of their own combativeness and the extent to which they desire money and status play essential roles in women’s feeling they belong in psychology and men’s feeling they belong in philosophy. (shrink)

Socrates engages his audience in Phaedrus with speeches that include revised or newly composed myths that express his theory of philosophical eros. The aim of the speeches is to generate a love for truth that spills over into dialogue. Speeches are a starting point for dialogue, just like physical attraction is the beginning of love. In the case of Phaedrus, the beginning of philosophy is portrayed using playful and rhetorically rich speeches that serve as "love potions" awakening the novice's soul, (...) and ultimately leading Phaedrus to higher rungs on the ladder of love through the palinode, a medicinal speech. It is thinking about speeches, not the speeches themselves, which moves Socrates' student Phaedrus from the love of speeches to the love of Beauty itself. This is a stark contrast to the purpose of speechmaking for the sophist. The sophist seeks to enchant the soul, while the philosopher seeks to charm the soul into loving wisdom through stimulating discussions. Socrates also uses role reversals in the lover-beloved relationship to model the soul's ascent, contrasting the traditional roles with the way the lover and beloved are presented in Socrates' speeches. The novice must actively recollect Beauty itself in order to ascend, rather than passively listening to speeches that provide an image of beauty. Socrates' interlocutors must move themselves up the ladder of love from their own philosophical eros; wisdom is not attained by merely being pushed all the way up the ladder of love. (shrink)

There is a way of teaching philosophy as a way of life that is focused on delivering content. In this paper, I consider a different way. It is focused on giving students the experience of philosophy as a way of life—in particular, the experience of being in love with wisdom. The main question of my paper is what it might be to teach philosophy in a way that prioritizes giving students the chance to fall in love with wisdom. I do (...) not so much argue for an answer as invite the reader to follow me along a path of metaphor, reflections on teaching philosophy, and quotations. (shrink)

"A Little More Logical" is the perfect guide for anyone looking to improve their critical thinking and logical reasoning skills. With chapters on everything from logic basics to fallacies of weak induction to moral reasoning, this book covers all the essential concepts you need to become a more logical thinker. You'll learn about influential figures in the field of logic, such as Rudolph Carnap, Betrrand Russell, and Ada Lovelace, and how to apply your newfound knowledge to real-world situations. Whether you're (...) looking to engage in debates with others, make better decisions in your personal and professional life, or simply want to improve your overall critical thinking skills, "A Little More Logical" has you covered. So why wait? Start learning and become a little more logical today! -/- "A Little More Logical" differs from typical logical textbooks in a number of ways. One key difference is its emphasis on engaging and relatable examples and case studies. Rather than simply presenting dry definitions and concepts, the book uses fables, stories, and real-world situations to illustrate key ideas and make them more relatable for readers. -/- Another unique aspect of "A Little More Logical" is its inclusion of "Minds that Mattered" sections, which highlight the contributions and insights of influential figures in the field of logic and critical thinking. These sections provide readers with a deeper understanding of the history and development of logical principles and offer valuable context for the concepts being discussed. -/- Additionally, "A Little More Logical" covers a wide range of topics beyond the basics of logic and argument evaluation. Chapters on moral reasoning, probability and inductive logic, scientific reasoning, conspiracy theories, statistical reasoning, and the history of formal logic offer a more comprehensive and well-rounded understanding of logic and critical thinking. -/- Overall, "A Little More Logical" stands out as a dynamic and engaging resource for anyone looking to improve their logical reasoning abilities. Its relatable examples, historical context, and broad coverage make it a valuable resource for anyone interested in mastering the principles of logic. -/- This is a free, Creative-Commons-licensed book. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to situate the ethics of Karol Wojtyla in the context of personalist philosophy - a 20th century philosophical and theological movement that seeks to investigate reality from the point of view of the human person. Personalism places persons and personal relationships at the center of theory and practice and explores the significance of personhood across disciplines and traditions. In terms of methodology, personalism takes into consideration the data gathered by empirical sciences and our lived (...) experiences as part of our community. While not to be thought of exclusively as a moral philosophy, most personalist philosophies place strong emphasis on ethical concerns. Personalist philosophers maintain that experience ought to be the starting point for the philosophical analysis of the person. At the outset, it must be clarified that this paper is not a systematization of the ethics of Wojtyla per se for there is no such thing as Wojtyla's ethics that can be set apart from other ethical systems in general or from Christian ethics in particular. Wojtyla did not develop his own “original” ethical system or philosophy. As many critics have pointed out, Wojtyla’s philosophical project can be best described as incomplete. His work is a picture of Aristotelian-Thomism enriched by phenomenological analysis of the human person. He develops a phenomenology of the subject grounded on a personalist principle. (shrink)

The term “Presocratics” refers to a group of Greek thinkers who lived not later than Socrates and who were not decisively influenced by him. They are often referred to as the first philosophers as they represent the dawn of human speculation in the West. The essay examines the fragments of major Presocratics - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Empidocles and Anaxagoras, which contain their views and arguments as reported by subsequent authors. Although these fragments are incomplete and are based (...) on secondary quotations, it is possible to sift through them and develop coherent and logical interpretations that approximate the original idea and intentions of these philosophers. The aim of this essay is to shed light on the philosophical meaning and significance of the concept of Arche (ἀρχή) – an untranslatable Greek word that connotes origin, principle, first in the series, or source, which constitutes the central thread of speculation among the Presocratics and their most influential contribution to the history of Western thought. (shrink)

In recent years, ‘philosophy as a way of life’ [PWOL] courses have emerged as an exciting new pedagogical approach. I explain what a PWOL-course is. Next, I argue that the standard method for teaching such courses—what I call the ‘Smorgasbord Model’—presents us with a basic problem: viz., the challenge of how to enable students in the context of the modern university to truly experience what a PWOL even is. I propose a solution to this problem by exploring a PWOL that (...) most teachers and students alike already find themselves immersed in, what I describe as political liberalism applied to the university classroom context. I show how this overlooked fact not only offers us a novel resource for teaching PWOL-courses. It also helps philosophy teachers—in a meta-pedagogical sense—to become more self-reflective about and appreciative of our fundamental ethical commitments when teaching philosophy. (shrink)

Standard ways of conceptualizing moral development and measuring pedagogical interventions in ethics classes privilege the growth of moral judgment over moral sensitivity, moral motivation, and moral habits by too often conflating improvement in moral judgment with holistic moral development. I argue here that if we care about students’ construction and cultivation of their ethical selves, our assessment design principles ought to take seriously the transformative possibilities of philosophy as a way of life and be based on a more robust and (...) holistic account of moral development. I illustrate these principles of assessment design through an examination of the Character Project, which I created to help students engage in their own deliberate ethical transformation through self-directed, individualized, and concentrated practice. Finally, I conclude with a discussion about how to appropriately and fairly assess this kind of deeply personal learning. (shrink)

Teachers committed to seeing philosophy as a way of life (PWOL) often focus on assignments that help students develop personal practices, so they experience peace of mind, independence, and a cure from anguish. While we applaud these goals, our work highlights another important aspect of philosophy as a way of life that sometimes is overlooked. We want our students to experience a transformation toward seeing themselves as moral agents, growing in civic virtues, and developing “cosmic consciousness.” To reach this end, (...) we utilize a civic engagement (CE) project that we call the “Experiments in Ethics.” This CE project consists of a series of small, interrelated assignments or “experiments” that help students develop habits and certain civic dispositions. While students complete the experiments throughout the semester, we argue that civically engaged philosophy as a way of life extends beyond the confines of the classroom and the semester as our students cultivate the ability to see themselves as ethical agents capable of making changes in their own lives and the communities in which they live. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive relationship of peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and indiscipline to students' dropout tendency in evening continuing education programmes. The context of this study is the southern senatorial district of Cross River State, Nigeria. The study adopted a predictive correlational research design, and the sample comprised 554 students randomly selected from 11 centres in the district. This represents 20% of the total population of students. The instrument used for data collection was (...) a questionnaire titled: "Social Indicators and Dropout Tendency Scale" (SIDTS). The researchers collected the data that were analysed using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple linear regression analyses at the .05 level of significance. The results revealed that peer group influence, teacher-student interaction and level of indiscipline collectively and individually predicted dropout tendency among students in evening continuing education programmes. It was recommended, among others, that the teachers discover diverse ways of making their teaching process lively by devising ways of engaging the students in the learning process by forming discussion groups that will promote healthy peer groups, which will increase their eagerness to come to school. (shrink)

Brief: Analysis on English and British Literature widely along-with creative genre, on using different styles of linguistic capability at different types of Essays, reflected now on recent book 'The Revolt in the Desert (Journey on English Literature from India to USA).

Bilkent Üniversitesi'nde bu yıl [2003] açılan Felsefe Bölümü’nün başkanlığını yürüten ve ana ilgi alanı yapay zekâ olan Prof. Dr. Varol Akman, yapay zekâyla felsefenin ilişkisini ve Felsefe Bölümü'nün özelliklerini anlattı. (An interview published in Bilkent Magazine about the then new Bilkent Philosophy Department.).

The German philosopher Johannes Clauberg (1622–1665) was the first academic teacher who attempted to put the philosophy of René Descartes (1596–1650) at the basis of all disciplines of the traditional curriculum of studies, that is, to establish a Cartesian Scholasticism. To this aim, he developed a first philosophy, i.e. a metaphysics including rational-theological arguments, which was based on Descartes’s Meditationes de prima philosophia (1641). By it, Clauberg attempted to provide philosophy with a foundation, namely with a demonstration of the reliability (...) of clear and distinct knowledge. Moreover, he elaborated a comprehensive logical theory showing how Descartes’s rules of the method could be completed by a Scholastic-inspired theory of definition, division and syllogism. Nevertheless, Clauberg maintained in the corpus of philosophical disciplines a metaphysics dealing with the meanings of ‘being’. Accordingly, he developed a twofold metaphysics: on the one hand, a discipline concerned with the principles of thought and rational theology, being this a philosophia prima in the order of sciences. On the other hand, a metaphysics dealing with the most abstract notions of being, viz. an ontosophia, to be studied at the end of the philosophical curriculum. Building on the account of Clauberg’s work provided by Massimiliano Savini, in this paper I explore the relations between Clauberg’s philosophia prima and ontosophia: after clarifying the overall plan of his philosophy, and presenting some examples of metaphysical arguments belonging to the philosophia prima, I argue that Clauberg’s ontosophia, despite being conceived as the most abstract of the philosophical sciences, plays a foundational role with regards to metaphysics as philosophia prima by unveiling its conceptual assumptions. (shrink)

Benet Pererio (1535-1610) began teaching philosophy at the Collegio Romano in 1559. A few years later, the rector, Diego Ledesma, and another professor of the Collegio, Achille Gagliardi, accused him of endorsing Averroistic positions during his lectures. This episode has recently been studied, among others, by Paul Richard Blum, who has blurred the lines of the alleged Averroism of Pererius, identifying a series of sources, often Neo-Platonic, which suggest an exploitation of the allegation of Averroism by Ledesma. In turn, Christoph (...) Sander argued that the point of quarrel was not so much about the content as about the way of teaching philosophy by Pererio. In my article, on the other hand, the ‘Pererio case’ is re-considered in the light of some manuscript sources which show how in Pereiro’s intellectual path the positions of the major philosophical authorities, starting with Aristotle, could not withstand the test of rational investigation: Theophrastus, Themistius, Simplicius and Averroes, up to Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. Pereiro, accordingly, found himself freed from ‘sacred authorities’, and, if exalting Averroes, he did so only as a commentator, but without adhering to his doctrines. (shrink)

As attention to the pervasiveness and severity of environmental challenges grows, technical universities are responding to the need to include environmental topics in engineering curricula and to equip engineering students, without training in ethics, to understand and respond to the complex social and normative demands of these issues. But as compared to other areas of engineering ethics education, environmental ethics has received very little attention. This article aims to address this lack and raises the question: How should we teach environmental (...) ethics to engineering students? We argue that one key aspect such teaching should address is the tendency of engineers towards technical framing of (social) problems. Drawing then on engineering ethics pedagogy we propose that the competencies of moral sensitivity and critical thinking can be developed to help engineering students with problem (re)framing. We conclude with an example from our teaching that operationalizes these competencies. (shrink)

Many students feel despair when addressing systemic issues of ethical significance, such as climate change, and student despair has been exacerbated by the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. This creates an unwelcoming space for authentic student engagement. To address the problem, we present an imaginary of radical hope, a pedagogical tool informed by trauma, for developing a brave space for class discussion. It is psychologically beneficial to acknowledge negative emotions, clearing the emotional space for students to engage. Therefore, we frame (...) ethics courses with an uncomfortable discussion, asking students to draw from their positionality and share their feelings of hope and despair, related to course material. In this paper, we explain the problem of despair motivating the project, describe the pedagogical and ethical support of our strategy, share the assignment, activity, and examples, and discuss takeaways. (shrink)

Medicines and medical devices containing animal-derived ingredients are frequently used on patients without their informed consent, despite a significant proportion of patients wanting to know if an animal-derived product is going to be used in their care. Here, I outline three arguments for why this practice is wrong. First, I argue that using animal-derived medical products on patients without their informed consent undermines respect for their autonomy. Second, it risks causing nontrivial psychological harm. Third, it is morally inconsistent to respect (...) patients’ dietary preferences and then use animal-derived medicines or medical devices on them without their informed consent. I then address several anticipated objections and conclude that the continued failure to address this issue is an ethical blind spot that warrants applying the principles of respect for autonomy and informed consent consistently. There are no data in this work. (shrink)

This is my response to a premise-by-premise argument in Anca Gheaus’s “Biological Parenthood: Gestational, Not Genetic.”.

This paper reflects on an article that appeared after the death of A.J. Ayer, which complains about what British philosophers focus on. I propose that the content of the philosophy curriculum can be predicted from a rational actor model.

Many students struggle to enter moral debates in a productive way because they automatically think of moral claims as ‘just opinions’ and not something one could productively argue about. Underlying this response are various versions of a muddled distinction between ‘facts’ and ‘opinions.’ This paper outlines a way to help students overcome their use of this distinction, thereby clearing an obstacle to true moral debate. It explains why the fact-opinion distinction should simply be scrapped, rather than merely sharpened. It then (...) proposes a different distinction well suited to replace it. Finally, it outlines an activity which can be used to teach the new distinction, as well as a number of benefits to attempting the whole replacement process. (shrink)

In this essay I offer an alternative perspective on how to organize class material for courses in Chinese philosophy for predominately American students. Instead of selecting topics taken from common themes in Western discourses, I suggest a variety of organizational strategies based on themes from the Chinese texts themselves, such as tradition, ritual, family, and guanxi (關係), which are rooted in the Chinese tradition but flexible enough to organize a broad range of philosophical material.

Designing a successful graduate seminar should account for more than just the content to be conveyed and the completion of the standard seminar paper. This article dissects the seminar structure, revealing some of what is obscured by the “hidden curriculum” of graduate education, with an eye toward transforming the climate in philosophy. I begin with a brief review of literature on graduate teaching and inclusive teaching in philosophy. I then examine four components of a typical graduate seminar: the faculty instructor (...) of graduate courses, the graduate students themselves, the material selection, and the course requirements. Reflecting on the graduate seminar compels revisiting learning goals, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility, and adopting a more intentional approach to graduate course design that ties course goals to specific activities and assessments for the life of the professional philosopher. (shrink)

Partindo-se de uma leitura crítica da produção filosófica latino-americana em geral e brasileira em particular, pautada em autores como Cruz Costa, Salazar Bondy e Severino, busca-se apresentar a possibilidade de compreensão da Filosofia como uma pedagógica da libertação, tendo como referência principal o pensamento de Enrique Dussel.